Aporetic
by Krait
Summary: Is Michael really cursed? Or is he a bloodthirsty psychopath? Laurie doesn't know what to believe anymore. She only knows that she must make up her mind before it's too late.


**Aporetic**

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_"Thurs causes anguish to women,_

_Misfortune makes few men cheerful."_

**-Old Norwegian rune poem**

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_"Curse of Thorn…"_

Laurie thinks everything sounds like some stupid ghost story told to children when they misbehave. It's something so surreal, something so stupid _–so easy_ for her to believe.

Or maybe it's not easy. Maybe the idea of a knife-wielding lunatic, who has stalked her for the past years, attempting to kill her for God knows what reason, is an easier concept for her to grasp; because her mind is already used to the idea of a raging psychopath than in a helpless man being used as a puppet by some crazy cult.

"_Because he has done such horrible things…"_

She doesn't want to believe in silly curses, but…

Laure draws her legs back just in time as the blade comes down to her lower limbs. Before Michael can bring his knife back up, adrenaline rushes throughout Laurie's blood and she kicks The Shape on the head.

The Bogeyman falters and Laurie takes this chance to get up and get away. When Michael gets up, the woman is not shocked anymore; she has seen him fall and come back up instantly so many times that the element of surprise has vanished from her mind.

"_He's unbeatable…"_

She's not surprised anymore. But that doesn't mean she doesn't fear him. Of course she's still frightened. He's the Bogeyman. Even Dr. Loomis said so when he saved Laurie the first time from Michael's grip.

…Loomis had called Michael "pure evil". Loomis had been the one to describe Michael's blackest eyes… The eyes of the devil. And nobody can kill the devil… Nobody can kill evil. You can't kill the Bogeyman, just as Tommy Doyle had stated.

"_He's evil. He's heartless."_

Michael catches up with Laurie once again, and the latter one screams. She tries to run away, but a strong hand gets tangled in her hair and tugs her back.

Laurie grunts as her head hits the wall. The knife's sharp tip zooms towards her face, but Laurie quickly turns over, prolonging her lifespan for a few more moments.

When her head slammed against the wall, she broke an old mirror sending pieces of deadly glass to the floor. So she grabs the longest and sharpest slice she can find and lunges it at Michael's neck.

He stumbles backward yet again, this time falling on his back, trying to pull the broken glass out of his skin. Laurie catches her breath and runs farther into the warehouse.

She barely remembers how she lured Michael into the old, abandoned building. She only recalls setting a trap that would make any teenage pyromaniac proud, somewhere inside the forgotten barn. She remembers running and screaming like a demented woman with Michael hot on her heels. But Laurie thinks that's not important. She thinks -_she knows-_ that as long as she has isolated herself with her psycho sibling, Michael would haunt her down without needing to hurt the woman's loved ones.

"_He's only after ME. Michael has never been interested in killing others. He has killed my friends and guardians at the hospital just to get my attention… Just to get to his family… I'm his family."_

Loomis refused to believe in the Curse of Thorn… Or at least, Laurie thinks he wouldn't accept that as the truth; she has not said a word to him.

She wouldn't have believed in that if she were another person. Curses only happened in fairytales and horror movies. They weren't real… She is a rational person through and through.

But Laurie starts to wonder if it's true (everything is possible in this life, she thinks)… What if…? What _if_ there was somebody or something behind Michael's murders? What if her psychopath brother was actually a hopeless man unable to control the savage urge to butcher his own flesh and blood? Was it true that a misguided cult took over Michael's mind when he was just and infant?

"_Thurisaz… That, that –thing- in what makes Michael do such horrible things…"_

Laurie turns to look back and freezes immediately when she sees that the Shape isn't following her anymore. She panics as her eyes scan every single dark corner of the warehouse. But Michael is nowhere to be found.

"_Shit!"_ she thinks as she steps backwards really slowly and her senses become much more acute. Right now, her mind is spinning. Whenever she gets lost in her own thoughts, she loses all contact with her surroundings. But to actually get distracted when a killer is chasing her…?

"_Idiot, idiot, idiot!"_

She's a millisecond late to notice a large shadow descend over her. When she spins around, with a swift move, Michael slices through her shirt and cuts Laurie's skin. She curses in pain and falls on her side.

"_Always slashing the same spot... That bastard."_

Laurie kicks the air and gets up, as Michael gets ready to cut her again. But the woman is much faster this time; she aims at his abdomen and tackles him as hard as she can.

And then Laurie blinks, because her brother actually groans and falls flat on his back. She thinks no more on this and only concentrates on stealing his butcher knife.

Her right hand quickly clasps around his neck, attempting to strangle him, while her left hand tries to snatch the blade away from his hands. Michael, too, struggles against her. He grabs her strangling wrist, making an effort to break her arm, while his armed hand tries to stab the raging woman on top of him.

Laurie is small compared to her beast of a brother, but she does her best to keep him down. Her legs are pressed tightly around Michael's torso; she pins the Shape's right arm against the floor and her fingers crawl towards the knife's handle, while she does her best to keep her other hand pressed against Michael's windpipe.

It's not Laurie's goal to steal the knife from her brother to stab him later on. She has already tried that back then. She only managed to knock him out for a few seconds, but he was instantly on his feet, strangling her. If it weren't for Loomis's help, Laurie would have died on that Halloween night in 1978.

But Loomis wasn't here right now (Laurie decided to keep the old shrink out of her plan to lure Michael into the abandoned warehouse) and besides… Laurie had to see something first.

"_Let's see if Thorn really exists, Michael."_

When Laurie knocks the pointed knife off from her brother's hand, Michael's sleeve pulls back and…

And Laurie sees it. She sees a small, but clear marking on the Bogeyman's wrist. It's a single character that she recognizes almost immediately. She has to fight back the urge to gasp and gawk at it.

"_Thorn! So it is true…"_

Now that Laurie knows, she decides knows what she must do.

She grabs the fallen knife, and stabs her brother in the neck yet again. Michael pulls it off, but Laurie has already fled.

The woman runs to the back of the warehouse, where her trap has been set. She quickly uncaps the gasoline containers and pours the flammable liquid all over the floor and splashes some in the walls. The smell bothers her immensely, but she has no time to complain now; Michael would be coming in any second now.

She kicks a cardboard box away, picks up her hidden revolver and loads it as fast as she can.

As if on cue, Michael comes into the room, knife held high.

Laurie gasps, and hurries with the bullets. Sweat drops form in the back of her hand and she is shaking now.

She points the gun at her homicidal brother, but she's too late. Michael grabs her by the throat and slams her against the wall. His vice-grip gets tighter and tighter; Laurie's feet leave the ground. Her air supply lessens each second and she feels her eyes about to pop out of their sockets.

The butcher knife aims at her face… But this time, it's the Bogeyman who's late; Laurie pulls the trigger, shooting Michael in the stomach.

The Shape lets her go, and Laurie manages to fall on her feet. She doesn't waste time, and shoots her brother in the chest.

Michael drops his knife and he staggers. Another two bullets hit him in the same leg and he falls on his knees, blood drawing from each pierced area.

Another bullet hits him, this time on the middle on his Adam's apple. He locks eyes with his little sister. She doesn't flinch. After all, she has come to a decision.

Laurie doesn't believe she can forgive him after everything Michael has put her through. The flashbacks of Annie's and Lynda's dead bodies, the murdered nurses and paramedics and the clear image of Judith Myers' headstone will forever be incised in her mind. All the mental and physical abuse she suffered in the hands of Michael Myers… She can't help but hate him.

But now, even with her loathing for him, Laurie knows what she must do. She doesn't know if she's doing it for herself, for her loved ones or for Michael. But Laurie can't back off now…

"I know what's been done to you." She says in a firm and audible voice, gun still poised. The Shape glares at her. He's losing too much blood at a fast rate; he's unable to get up...

"Trying to kill you would be a waste of time –nothing can kill you, anyways." The woman continues. She knows she's stating the obvious, but she needs to keep the Bogeyman focused on what she's saying.

"I'm going to help you, Michael." Laurie says. And the Shape freezes.

Laurie guesses her psychopath sibling understand what she means. So she slowly steps towards him and lets her gun hang at her side. And for once, Michael is trapped and weakened and it's such a pathetic sight. If he could, he would've reached out for his baby sister… His _sister_.

She's getting much closer now, and Michael is hyperventilating.

And now, she's going to free him. He doesn't know how the hell she's going to do it, but he can see it in Laurie's eyes! She wants to free him from that dreaded curse of Thorn; she is going to help him…

"But not today."

Before the Shape can react, Laurie draws her gun and shoots the Bogeyman straight in the head. Michael finally collapses on the puddle of gasoline and blood.

Laurie runs out the backdoor, almost breathless. Once she's outside, she slams the iron door shut. She prepares the Molotov bomb she hid behind a bush and turns on her lighter. She lights up the kerosene-soaked wick and, with her last bit of energy, she runs as far as safely possible and throws the bomb through the window.

The inside of the warehouse explodes and debris shoots out in different directions.

Laurie gets in her car and drives fast, without looking back.

She knows Michael will survive this fire. He endured being stabbed, shot, falling off a balcony and the explosion at the hospital. But now, Laurie knows the reason.

Somebody is looking out for her brother. Somebody nurses him back to perfect health every year, to use him as a killing machine for whatever fucked up reason Laurie can't understand.

That somebody is Thorn.

And now that Laurie knows this, she's going to figure out how she can break this curse once and for all. With or without Loomis' help. She has one entire year to find a cure.

Fire trucks, ambulances and police sirens rush through the road, going for the abandoned warehouse.

Laurie looks at her watch. It's officially the first of November.

"Until next year, Michael. Next Halloween, I'll be ready."

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**A/N:** This idea has been eating my brain for the past few days, so I finally got to write it down. Anyways, enjoy. Feedback is always welcome :)

"Halloween" (c) John Carpenter and Debra Hill.


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